08.10.12

Full credit to USC head football coach Lane Kiffin, who remarkably managed to take the heat off UCLA counterpart Jim Mora by being caught in a very public fib (and trying very hard to talk his way out of it). Earlier this week, Kiffin told reporters he wouldn’t vote for USC at No.1. in the USA Today coaches poll, though it turns out he’s done exactly that. From USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer :

Kiffin told USA TODAY Sports by phone Thursday night that he didn’t think the quote misrepresented his vote. By saying what he did, Kiffin said he meant that he wouldn’t vote USC No. 1 if he were in the media or coaching another team. Because of NCAA-imposed scholarship restrictions, USC is operating with 75 scholarship players, 10 less than the regular maximum of 85.

“We have less players than everybody else,” Kiffin said. “So looking at it from the outside, I wouldn’t (vote USC No. 1). Did I? Yeah, I did. That’s not based off of 75 vs. 85. That’s based off of (USC players) Matt Barkley, T.J. McDonald and Robert Woods and Marqise Lee. When everybody has the same record, I can’t go into a meeting with our players and have them say, ‘You put that team and that team ahead of us.’ That’s why I did that.”

But the players normally would not have found out about his vote until the end of the season, making it impossible for them to raise objections about it before then.

2 responses to “Q : How Do You Know When Lane Kiffin Isn’t Lying? A : His Lips Aren’t Moving”

Wow, this is like Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman” controversy all over again. If this dude’s name was not Lane Kiffin nobody would give a shit. This is a good way to start a backlash to the backlash, Brent Schrotenboner, by focusing on the minutiae that nobody gives a shit about because the guy acts like a tool sometimes. I like sanctimoniousness as much as the next sports fan, but this isn’t exactly Jerry Sandusky saying “I enjoy young people.” The dude voted for his own team for #1 which most everybody else did too.

i’ll agree this isn’t exactly breaking news (ie. Lane Kiffin being a dishonest jerk), but I don’t think USA Today would’ve gone to the trouble of ratting Kiffin out if he’d not previously claimed he’d not vote for his own team. And as Schrotenboner’s item cites, USA Today did the same thing in 2006 when Jim Tressel publicly claimed he’d voted for Texas at no. 1 when he’d actually picked Ohio State.

Is this just an excuse for me to take another easy swipe at Kiffin? You betcha. Though it’s interesting to note this entire episode was precipitated by Rich Rodriguez claiming he’d voted for USC.